VIDEO: Probiotics and Fermented Foods
TRANSCRIPT
Hi everyone! I am here today to talk to you guys about probiotics. But before we can really start talking about actual probiotic supplements and probiotic foods you have to kind of have a good understanding of the GI tract and what probiotics are supposed to even be doing. So if you think about it, your GI tract is your esophagus, your stomach, your small intestine and your large intestine. The esophagus and the stomach don't have a lot of bacteria in them because there's a lot of acidity in the stomach that would basically kill them. The small intestine has a little but not a ton. Most of the bacteria in your intestinal tract are going to be in the large intestine, also known as the colon, which is the last section of your intestines before the end. So basically the bacteria that live in your large intestine have a job. When food travels through you a lot of it gets digested and absorbed in the small intestine. But there's certain particles called non-digestible carbohydrates that make it to the large intestine. The bacteria's job is to digest them there. We're mainly talking about fiber, inulin, which is also in plants, and then in human breast milk there's oligosaccharides, a lot of them make it to the large intestine. What the bacteria do with these carbohydrates is essentially eat them and then the byproduct is gas and short chain fatty acids. The short chain fatty acids are what feeds the cells that line your entire intestinal tract – they’re super important for gut health. And then the gas feeds the bacteria and some of it comes out as gas. So that's sort of the process in the large intestine.
Now you have to understand there are more bacteria in and on our body than there are human cells. Approximately ten times more bacteria is the current estimate and a lot of them are in the gut. Some of them are in the mouth, on your skin, and in the urogenital canals and things like that, but many of them are in the gut. There's anywhere from five hundred to a thousand different strains, different species of bacteria living in your gut. Here's where science is kind of lost: we don't know which ones are the “right” ones. Scientists are working on it but at the moment we've definitely been able to figure out some correlations between certain bacterial populations and different health measures, but we don't know what the perfect gut bacteria mix is. We do know that these bacteria seem to play a role in colon health and general GI wellness, so things like constipation and diarrhea. Also the lymphatic system and by extension the immune system, that's huge. Bone health and neurological conditions, so things like anxiety, autism, ADHD – there’s some connections there which is fascinating. And we know that the bacteria in your gut are impacted by a lot of different things. How you were birthed – whether you came through the vaginal canal or were born by cesarean. Whether you've been on antibiotics at any point recently, or ever. Proximity to animals – so people who live on farms or have even dogs tend to have slightly different bacteria than people without. Your proximity to soil and nature. And then of course diet, one of those things being fiber. Remember, fiber is the food for the bacteria, so depending on how much fiber is in your diet, it’s going to change which bacteria like living in your colon. And then also probiotic foods.
This is kind of a fascinating topic and one that we don't have a ton of information on yet. Basically the question is: does eating bacteria change the bacteria that's in our gut? There's really two ways that we can do that – there’s fermented foods and then there's actual probiotic supplements. Fermented foods are foods that contain carbohydrates naturally and are exposed to bacteria. Those bacteria, much like the ones in our gut fermenting our non-digestible carbohydrates, those bacteria eat the sugars in the foods and then they produce gas and acid. And this is why fermented products are often bubbly, kind of carbonated and sour – that’s from the bacteria eating the sugars that were naturally occurring in things like milk or juice or vegetables. When you eat that food there are still living bacteria in the product. The bacteria can come from just leaving the food at room temperature – a lot of people will make homemade sauerkraut just by leaving cabbage on their counter and then the bacteria in the air is what ferments the cabbage. You can also make things like yogurt using a yogurt starter where you're putting bacteria into the milk intentionally. Either way the result is a fermented food that has live bacteria in it. Keep in mind if a fermented food is heated after fermentation, so sourdough bread or shelf-stable sauerkraut and pickles, the bacteria will be killed. So while they are still fermented foods they are no longer living they don't have any live bacteria present in them. And then in the case of alcohol which is also fermented, most manufacturers of alcohol will filter out the bacteria at the end because it changes the taste. So that is, again, a fermented food that's not actually a live bacterial food.
Then aside from food there's also the option of taking a probiotic supplement which is an encapsulated or powdered bacteria that's been isolated for the purpose of changing your health. It's a really vague promise that they're making and there's a reason for that. The thing about probiotics, like we said, we don't know what the “right” bacteria in your gut is, so we don't know what to put in the probiotics. If you look you’ll see there's at least 20 different strains in the various probiotics on the shelf today and they're all different. Some people have great results with one and some people have great results with another. It's really hard to say what probiotic will help you. There is some research on certain bacteria that help with certain things, so if you have a very clear malady like maybe constipation or ADHD there is some research out there saying this strain has been shown to help this or that.
The other thing you have to think about is whether any of these probiotics, whether from food or from pills or supplements, actually making it to the gut alive. A lot of the time they're dying in the stomach because of all the stomach acid. Now a dead bacteria can still have an impact on your health, potentially a positive impact, so it's not completely moot. But what a dead bacteria definitely can't do is recolonize your gut. You may hear people talk about trying to change the population that lives in your gut day in and day out, and a dead probiotic that got killed in your stomach isn't is it going to be able to do that. Even a live one might not be able to do that depending on how fierce the bacteria that are currently in your gut are and how much they defend against new comers. The research is very much still out.
What does this all mean? What do I recommend for you? First of all, eat fermented foods. They have been in the diet for so long, they're part of human history, and I have to believe they're nutritious. [Demo’s various fermented foods: apple cider vinegar, kombucha, plain yogurt, refrigerated sauerkraut, miso, gochujang]. No reason not to incorporate these foods into your diet – they’re nutritious and they may give you benefits. As far as pills go, my recommendation is [to pick a brand and] buy a 30 day supply. Take it religiously for 30 days. If whatever you were trying to solve is not solved, don't buy that one again, try a different one. The bottom line is that different people have different problems with their bacteria and so different people need different probiotics to help them. So it's really hard for me to make a blanket supplement recommendation when it comes to probiotics. I'm not against them, but I just think it's trial and error. Don't waste your money on more than a 30 day supply at once. Hopefully that helps you guys figure out what to do when you're in the ever-growing probiotic and fermented foods aisles at the grocery store! Have a good one!